And They Say
by NightDuchess
Summary: What should Temari do about the feelings that she has inside her heart? Should she listens to what everyone says or just listen to what her heart says instead? My dedication to ShikaTema.


AND THEY SAY

Disclaimer: Only the great Masashi Kishimoto-sensei owns Naruto and Co. Me? I'm just a newbie, trying to share my interest in the Naruto universe.

Author's Note: This is one of a few stories I'm working on, and I did put a lot of effort, love, and hard work on this story. And, it has also been rewritten and corrected. So, minna-san, please be kind and I'm looking forward to receive constructive criticisms and ideas, and no flames please! I'm emotionally incapable of receiving any heartless remarks. - Hope you'd give this one-shot a shot….alrite?

Summary: What should Temari do about the feelings that she has inside her heart? Should she listens to what everyone says or just listen to what her heart says instead? My dedication to ShikaTema.

She knew that there are a lot of obstacles for this relationship to work out. So many issues for her to handle; his friends (namely the food-loving Chouji and that blonde Ino), her siblings (both of her one-of-a kind little brothers), he's from Konoha and she's from Suna, his sensei, her sensei (not that Baki gives a damn about her or him or anybody), his parents (she met her father once, mind you not face-to-face, but she believed that she made a good impression during that first encounter at the hospital just after they got back from the Uchiha Sasuke retrieval mission) and her siblings… 'Wait, haven't I thought of that one before?' Temari mused, her forehead wrinkled in an attempt to strain her brain cells, so she could remembered all the points she mentioned inside her head before.

And they say….

"Only a girl like Ino could handle a person like that lazy-ass Shikamaru. That way, there's gonna be zero competition for Sasuke's heart. Oh wait….Sasuke's gone." The pink-haired kunoichi talked to her team-mate Naruto.

"Sakura-chaaan. I promised to you that I'll bring Sasuke back. Dattebayo. I think Shikamaru deserves somebody better." The blue-eyed and blond-haired Genin wailed at Sakura.

"Arf!"

Both of them turned towards the source of the sound. A small smile graced Naruto's lips as he saw his good friend approaching them, with his dog leading up front.

"Oi, Naruto. I can't believe you have the penchants for gossiping with the girls. What are you bitchin' about huh?" Kiba asked in amusement.

"Kiba-kun, who do you think is compatible with Shikamaru huh?"

"Huh? Why are you so interested with Shikamaru all of a sudden Sakura-san?" He gave Sakura a quizzical look.

"Nothing. I felt that Ino must be as upset as I am since Sasuke left the village. I just think maybe, there's somebody else could help her get over it. So there's no better person than Shikamaru himself. I think they looked good together."

"Huh? And they say girls are more intuitive. What do you think Akamaru?" Kiba posed a glance to his dog, currently residing on his left shoulder.

"Arf! Arf!" Akamaru barked in response.

"Aaa…you could say that again."

"What did Akamaru said huh, Kiba?" Naruto jumped in front of Kiba and looked at him in the face.

"He said, "Damn, right Sakura-san's clueless"."

"WHAT!" Sakura cried, eyes twitched in annoyance.

"Yeah…" Kiba smirked.

"WHY YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING DOG-BOY! I'm so gonna kill you." Just as Sakura lunged forward to choke Kiba, Naruto put himself between those two to hold them off from getting at each other's throat.

"Sakura-chan, Kiba, stop it."

"Hi you guys! (munch) Fancy seeing you guys here. (much) Where are you going? (munch)" Chouji suddenly appeared out of the blue, holding a bag of BBQ-flavored chips in his left hand.

"Oi, Chouji. We're grabbing a bite at the ramen stall. Wanna join?" Naruto asked the Akimichi boy.

"That sounds great! (munch) Count me in."

"Ano-sa. Ano-sa. Chouji, have you seen Shikamaru?"

"I saw him walked out from the Administration building just now. Maybe he's teaching a class today. Why?"

Then, Sakura cut him before Naruto could answer. "Chouji, is Shikamaru seeing someone right now?"

"Oh boy, here she goes again." Kiba shook his head and sighed.

"Shikamaru? Hmmm…. (munch) practically yes. Why?"

"Who is it? Who is it?" Naruto had started to become excited all of a sudden over the matter of Shikamaru's love life.

"(munch) I don't really think it's my place to tell you guys about his personal life."

"It's okay, Chouji. I already knew that he's dating Ino. Besides, it's so obvious that they have the hots for each other since our Genin days." Sakura said with full-confidence.

"………."

"……….."

"………."

The three of them sweat-dropped while looking at the now-seemingly-overconfident- kunoichi.

"Because, last few nights, I went to Ino's house to drop something for her mom, when I saw her and Shikamaru at the front door. And, Shikamaru was holding Ino in his arms like there was no tomorrow. If I didn't know better, I believed that there's something going on between them."

Oblivious to them, a figure stood motionless behind the group. She was just about to ask them if they had seen Shikamaru around. Guess, Temari had more information than what she expected to have.

"I don't think that's what you saw, Sakura-san." Chouji calmly dismissed her statement.

"What? Are you saying that I'm lying? I saw them together!" Sakura stared at him in disbelief.

"It's true that you might saw them together that night. And, Shikamaru told me that Ino had confessed her feelings to him…"

"See…"

And that time, Temari chose not to stay there anymore. Because she's afraid of what she'll hear next. Temari quickly make her way towards god-knows where.

"I was too late. No wonder he seemed so cold towards me one of these days. Maybe…it was…it's just…his way to…." She never got to finish her sentence because she couldn't help to sustain the tears that were already making their way down her cheeks. She felt as if her voice was stuck inside her throat.

"Huh?" Naruto turned his head around.

"What, Naruto?" Kiba asked him.

"Weird. I thought I felt there's someone behind us just now"

"Don't mind him, Kiba. And, you were saying Chouji?" Sakura cut him again before he could answer.

"I guess I had to clear things with you guys before you get the wrong idea…Shikamaru used to have a crush on Ino, but it was like ages ago. Right now, Shikamaru had already fallen in love with someone else."

"And, that person would be…" Sakura asked to herself.

"Yup, it's her."

"But, she's older than he is."

"Love surpasses all boundaries Sakura-san."

"But Chouji, she's from Suna and he's Konoha. It's so impossible. How did you know? When did it all started?"

"Shikamaru told me that everything started when they first met face-to-face during the finals of the Chuunin exam. Right before the attempted invasion on Konoha. Ever since she started to work together with him as one of the examiners for the upcoming Chuunin exam, you could say that he had fallen completely head over heels in love with her."

"Wow…I never realized that." Naruto's eyes wide in bewilderment.

Oh, but Sakura wouldn't want to admit that she's wrong. "But, I heard they fight each other a lot. And Naruto, you remember when we saw them walking together on the streets when you just got back right?"

"Which one? Ohh…that one. He denied that that they are on a date."

Chouji laughed. "Yes, they fight a lot, they drive each other crazy. That only means that they spent a lot of time together Sakura-san. Besides, if you looked closely enough, they were unintentionally flirting with each other. Heh, I caught Shikamaru checking out on Temari a few times in the office."

All mouths gaped open.

"I know. If only he had the guts to tell her how he feels, maybe they'll resolve all the tensions between them. But, you know Shikamaru. Such things are too troublesome for him to handle" Chouji continued to munch on his second bag of chips, walking normally, leaving three baffled nins behind.

"Hey, you guys coming?"

Only a few steps left, she'll be approaching the Konoha gate. After all, she was scheduled to begin her journey back to Suna later this evening. Originally, her plan was to see Shikamaru before she went off, but right now, it doesn't seem necessary at all.

To tell the truth, she was afraid. Afraid of breaking down in front of him. For all this time, she had always been one of the strong, competent and unbreakable kunoichis in both Suna and Konoha to everyone, especially him.

But, is she making the right decision? Will leaving here could mend her broken heart?

'Well, at least in Suna, I won't be seeing anyone of them' Suddenly, the mental image of Shikamaru and Ino together popped inside her head. 'Oh, just thinking of them made me feel angrier and really disappointed of myself for falling in love with that good-for-nothing royal lazybones of Konoha.' Her head hung low in an attempt to conceal the tears out of anyone's view.

Temari was so busy debating with her inner self that she failed to notice a tall, well-built figure leaning against one of the gate's pillar.

"And, where do you think you're going, troublesome woman?" A deep, masculine voice shook her back to reality.

She shot her head up, just to find the said person standing right in front of her. Clad in a dark green Konoha Chuunin vest, and a dark blue shirt with matching pants. With his thick dark hair tied in a high ponytail, his lazy gaze, his trademark scowl were the things that merged to be the immaculate image of Nara Shikamaru all along.

"Piss off. I don't need to hear your crap right now." She turned her head away, refusing to look at his deep onyx eyes.

"My…my…someone certainly woke up at the wrong side of the bed this morning."

"Shut up, Nara-san." She gave him a very deadly glare.

"Eh? What's with the honorific all of a sudden?"

"….Whatever, I'm going…" She moved forward, a few steps closer to the entrance of the gate.

"Where to?" His eyebrow arched in a questioning manner.

"Back to where I belong…" Then, she brushed shoulders with him, and walked past him without even looking at his direction.

"Whoa…whoa…hold down. I thought you're supposed to make your trip later this afternoon and I'm the one who's going to escort you to the borders…Are you trying to run away from me?" Subconsciously, his hand thrust forward to grab her by the wrist, and pulled her close to him.

"No and I certainly can take care of myself. I don't need you or your help. And I'm not running away from you, you're the one who's running away from me."

"Huh?" Shikamaru's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"You really are an asshole even though you're the genius here. Now let me go. My brothers need me."

"And I don't?"

"Will you stop messing with other people's mind?" 'And heart, for that matter'

"Well, if you're still insisted on going right now, at least let me do my responsibility."

"Don't. You've done enough. Could you let my hand go? People are gonna see and this ain't gonna look good if your girlfriend was one of them, got it?" She tore her hands away from his grasp.

"Where did you ever get that crazy idea in that head of yours? You know very well that I don't have a girlfriend. Jeez…this is too troublesome."

"People see, people talk, Nara Shikamaru."

"Who told you that Sabaku No Temari?"

"It's not important. Inform me when the wedding's on. Maybe I could sneak some time from my schedule for it."

"What! You're out of your mind, woman." His eyes widened in shocked at her incredulous statement.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm totally out of my mind for falling in love with a complete idiot." In the midst of disappointment and confusion, Temari was more than motivated to tell him the truth.

"Yeah, and I've become an idiot ever since I've met the fearsome, whimsical and complicated yet mesmerizing kunoichi from Suna who turned my life upside down just with a smile on her lips."

"Huh?"

"There…I've said it in one perfect sentence. I'm not gonna repeat it again." Behind the smug expression on his face, one could interpret that he was quite relieved, for being able to tell her the things he longed to say after quite some time now.

"But I heard that you and that blonde teammate of yours are together."

"Oh, you mean the one who came to me crying her heart out and confessed to me, how much she loves a certain Inuzuka who, in turn doesn't seem to notice her feelings since he's being such a jerk?" He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets.

"What?"

"This is just between you, me, Ino and Chouji. Oh yeah, Akamaru too. Ino's in love with Kiba, but it seems that he's too busy to notice. Ironic, isn't it?"

"Hah…sounded like someone I knew."

"Well, at least I knew I love you and maybe, you love me before you do. I was just a little bit late in the confession department."

"Who said it was you? Pineapple-head." She fervently teased him, with the usual naughty glint in her eyes.

"Are we back to the old hate me-hate you game again?"

"Whatever. I'm still going back to Suna."

"Then, I have no choice but to follow you until you arrived at Suna in one piece."

"And you're going back to Konoha straight away afterwards?"

"Well, unless you have a better idea…"

"How about enjoying a few days in Suna before we head back to Konoha?"

"We?"

"Yeah, me and that idiot boyfriend of mine." She grinned teasingly.

"Hnn…"

And together, they walked hand-in-hand out of the main gate of Konoha, earning very interesting looks from the guards.

"Is this okay with Tsunade-sama, Shika-kun? Won't she be pissed off knowing that you're traveling out of Konoha without her permission?" Temari shot a questioning glance at the dark plum-haired Chuunin beside her.

"Nah…let's just say, I've thought a few steps ahead of the situation."

"You…you knew this would happened after all?"

"Well, who told you to be eavesdropping on other people's conversation, especially when it involves a certain chirpy, loud-mouthed Uzumaki Naruto and one overly-concern-friend Sakura?"

"You saw me back there?"

He shrugged. "Sort of…I was behind you all the time."

Blood rushed to her face all of a sudden. "…I…I…"

Shikamaru admired the now blushing beauty in front of him. He found himself drowning in those deep turquoise eyes of hers. "If I didn't, I would've never known what you truly feel."

They continued walking down the path heading towards the borders of Fire country together. As their hands joined, it also signified the unity of their hearts. And she may not want to admit it, but Temari had learnt her lesson well. Not to listen what other people say. It's our own heart and instinct that matters.

"Shika-kun?"

"Huh?"

"Did you say Akamaru knew about Ino's feelings before Kiba himself?"

"Yup…the dog's perceptive and they say that Akamaru couldn't keep a secret from its master."

"Well, they are certainly wrong aren't they?"

"And, love is one troublesome thing." He turned his head towards her and gave her a quick but soft peck on her rosy cheeks. "But, I still like to know about it."

The End.

A/N: Haha…-. There you go. My first fic. I know I have lots of areas to be improved. But, I'll be working harder and harder for my currently under construction fics. Anyway, I hoped you'd review. Feel free to share your ideas with me. Till next time. Ja Ne!

Love,

Ardenilia

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